Friday Night Live: Rock Hall Controversies and Soulful Comfort Food....mmmm GOOD!

Crack open a cold one and settle in for a wild ride, rock aficionados! Your Friday Night Live host is back from a hiatus, and we're kicking things off with a taste-test challenge that's sure to leave my taste buds begging for mercy—the Malort Challenge, paired with the wacky bean boozled beans. And if you think you can outsmart me with your rock trivia, bring it on with 'Stump the Chump'! Plus, I've got some behind-the-scenes tales from my recent interview with the uber-talented Kobi Reese. Trust me, you don't want to miss the scoop on the almost-happened Portland broadcast fiasco.

Now, let's talk Hall of Fame—Rock Music Hall of Fame, that is. We're diving into a mix of celebration and controversy as we highlight the much-deserved tip of the hat to Foreigner. But hold onto your headphones, because we're also stirring the pot over the baffling bypassing of rock legends like Styx and Boston. What's your take on these snubs? I'm all ears. And speaking of legends, the band the Effect is breathing new life into Journey's "Could Have Been You," and yes, you guessed it, Steve Perry's haunting vocals are in the mix! With Perry's comeback on the horizon, the buzz is real, and we're all here for it.

Before we wrap up, let's get cozy with some comfort food chat that's just as soul-warming as those classic rock tracks we all love. I'm sharing a crockpot recipe that's a hug in a bowl, perfect with Kathryn's freshly baked biscuits. It's the ultimate pairing—like Uriah Heep and the Rock Hall, only this dish isn't missing from my table. Oh, and don't think I forgot about the visual delights—I'm giving you a virtual tour of the studio, featuring personal mementos and a touching tribute painting by my brother-in-law, Vito. Remember, folks, it's your engagement that fuels this show, so keep those comments, subscriptions, and Instagram follows coming!#tellyourstory #familymatters #thebenmaynardprogram #rockandrollhalloffame #comfortfood #fridaynightlive

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram
and subscribe to my YouTube channel: THE BEN MAYNARD PROGRAM
I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hey everyone, welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. It is Friday night and we are live. Yeah, let's take care of some housekeeping right out of the gate. How's that? As you know, this program is available on multiple podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, amazon Music and Spotify, among many others. Just search the Ben Maynard program and choose your option. You'll have several to choose from. I like to steer everyone towards Buzzsprout, because that's where my website is and, of course, all the episodes are there. Next, if you can't resist this pretty face right here and I know many of you can't, and that's why you come to YouTube and watch this show If that's the case, then please subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell, give me a thumbs up and leave a comment. All right, I love comments. You know I do. And, last but not least, follow me on Instagram. All one word Ben Maynard Program. So plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. And with that, again, it's Friday night and we're live, so let's have some fun tonight. All right, how's that?

Speaker 1: 1:24

Get things started off with a bang. Right, we're gonna do the usual stuff. This is what the first this is the first Friday Night Live in a month. I think it is. Wow, I know last April was, or last month, in April, that was the last Friday Night Live that we did and I believe that was right before I had gone to Portland for a couple of weeks. And now I've been back for almost two weeks and we did a show last Saturday. We recorded that one in the morning. That was my return to the chair and, yeah, so this is our first Friday Night Live in a few weeks now. So good stuff. Yeah, so we're going to do the usual stuff. We've got the Malort Challenge and for all the newbies out there, what that means is call into the show and let's do this first, let's do this, let's see, yes, call into the program.

Speaker 1: 2:34

And if you call in, I have to take a shot of this wonderful stuff right here. Malort yes, the worst tasting liqueur ever. All right, it just truly is. It's nasty stuff. Got my shot glass right over here, my Mr Spock shot glass, and yeah, here it is and it's. Look, if you can really see, you can tell it hasn't been washed, hasn't been washed, it's been sitting here All this. That shot glass has been sitting here since the last Friday Night Live, and since I started using my Mr Spock shot glass, it hasn't been washed one time, not at all. So, gosh, we've been doing Friday Night Live for about three months, I think, and so, yeah, that's been here pretty much ever since without getting any no washing at all. Just sits here in between shows, collects dust or whatever else it may collect in there, and that's all part of the Malort Challenge.

Speaker 1: 3:42

You call in, I got to take a shot of that. That's all part of the Malort challenge. You call in, I got to take a shot of that. And then I also put in one of those nasty bean boozled beans. Yes, most of the time they are nasty and it's very rare that I get a decent one. Then, of course, we've got stump the chump. Here's your chump, right here, and what that is is you call in with your music trivia. If you stump me, I have to take a drink. Of course, this is not supposed to be a drunk show, but these are punishments that I am willing to endure for you, just for you out there, because I love you so much, you're so special. Yeah, and I just want to try to get some more engagement on this program. So we're just having some fun here. It's great to be back. We've done two shows now. Two shows now prior to tonight.

Speaker 1: 4:47

We did the last Saturday, my return, and that one was fun. Early in the morning after getting home from work I think it was like 5.30 in the morning. I got home from work and I jumped in the shower and tried to get looking as best as I could, which is a tall task, and I came in here and banged out a show and it was a lot of fun. I was extremely tired. My eyes were bloodshot I'm glad that you couldn't see but it was fun, I liked it and it felt good to be back, because while I was gone I wasn't able to do a show and I won't get into all the particulars, but I did have had some Internet issues and that type of thing because I did take the laptop. But I wanted to to to do a Friday night live from Portland. You know, take this show on the road why not? But it wasn't going to work. Take this show on the road why not? But it wasn't going to work. So, yeah, and then today, if you haven't seen the post, the Facebook post, I don't think we put it on Instagram yet how stupid are we right. But we'll get it on Instagram as well.

Speaker 1: 5:59

I recorded a show earlier, earlier this afternoon, with a young man named Kobe Reese Great kid, great kid, really just such a good kid and we had some fun. He's a multi-instrumentalist, he's a singer-songwriter and he is the front man in his own band called the Kobe Reese Band, and it was just a lot of fun. I had met him a while back when Catherine and I went to the David Z Foundation benefit show, and so I met him and his parents and he was just such a great kid and it was a ton of fun doing the show with him. This afternoon he was engaging in I don't know how many interviews that he's done in the past, but he was pretty good and it's not like I'm a big celebrity, so there's really no reason to get nervous talking to me, but it was a lot of fun. So if you haven't seen that one, check it out. It just posted this afternoon, so you probably haven't had much of an opportunity to see it. So let me fill you in on this as well. This is interesting.

Speaker 1: 7:16

I got a new camera for the studio and I've got it mounted on the back wall of the studio. It's really a nice camera. I'm pretty pleased with it so far. I'm used to having my camera mounted right on top of my laptop. I can look directly at the monitor on the laptop and look into the camera at the same time. Well, that's not the case here. Just so that you know, I'm looking at the camera right now, so it kind of does look like I'm looking at you, but I can't see what's going on. Camera's right here, laptop's over here, Laptops over here. So it's tough getting used to it, but I'm going to do the best I can. I hung a couple of camera mounts here in the studio to try some new things coming up, maybe record the show from a couple of different angles and we'll see how that goes. Let me see. Yes, I did put the phone number there so you can call in, call into the program, and I'm still waiting for some of your comments. So make sure you get on the horn and either call in or pound away at your keyboard and get some comments going.

Speaker 1: 8:44

All right, and what else has been going on? You know, I know what I wanted to talk about. Last Saturday when we did the show, I went over a few things in the music world certainly in my world, in our world, the stuff that we like and talked about some music documentaries and talked about some music releases and anniversaries and that type of thing. And the one thing I forgot to mention was Steve Perry greatest singer ever in the history of ever, is on a new song. Well, kind of a new song Steve Perry is, and I can't. It's hard to say he's featured and I'll explain in a moment.

Speaker 1: 9:40

But there's a band called the Effect. You may have heard of this, you may have heard this news already. The song dropped last week. As I said, the band is called the Effect. The two members of any notoriety, I'll say, are Trev Lukather, who is the son of Steve Lukather from Toto, and I think it's Nick Collins, who's the son of Phil Collinsather from Toto, and I think it's Nick Collins, who's the son of Phil Collins, of course, from Genesis and his major solo career. So they're the two names that anybody might recognize in the band.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Well, for those of you who know, or even those of you who don't know, there's a song, a journey song, on the album Raised on Radio. It's called Could have Been you and apparently Trev Lukather is a huge Journey fan and apparently him and Steve Perry are. You know, they know each other quite well and Trev had approached Steve Perry about them, his band recording the song, and Steve Perry kind of gave his blessing. Then they approached Steve Perry and asked him if he would sing on it. So he agreed to. He was really kind of touched and what a strange song to pick, because it's a deep track on the album and it's one that I absolutely love.

Speaker 1: 11:12

I love that song and it's so funny I thought about this when this was coming around. I love the song so much. Every time I listen to Raised on Radio and that is an album I go back to a lot After that song plays, I immediately hit repeat and listen to it again. It's that good and there's something about it. I just don't. I can't describe it, but there's something about that song that is so great. Yet this is what's so weird Yet it was not in my Journey Top 20 songs. That's kind of strange. Right, as much as I love that song, it's not in my Journey Top 20. Maybe I should revise my list Anyhow. So Steve Perry sings on this song. So Steve Perry sings on this song. And the song dropped last week.

Speaker 1: 12:16

I've listened to it a couple of times and the effect have done a good job with the song. They've kind of punched it up a little bit I guess, given it more of a I don't know a more current sound, but certainly a little more rocked up than the original version. The lead singer and I don't even know his name because I don't know the other two members in the band that's a good voice, does a really really good job with it, really really good job with it. But I'm listening for Steve Perry and I don't hear him at all. I'm thinking where's Steve? And if you really really I mean you got to really turn the volume up and you really have to listen very, very closely you might hear a whisper of Steve Perry in there. It's just, it's really difficult and because of the lead singer's voice sometimes you don't know if you're hearing him or Steve. So it's yeah, I don't know where I sit on it.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Like I said, good song, good cover of the song. But I want to hear Steve Perry. But apparently now I heard that the band had asked him to either sing the song, sing a verse or sing the chorus something, but sing a portion of the song where his vocals could really be featured, and I guess he had said something to the effect hey look, this is your song, this is not mine, this is your band and it's not mine, so you guys do your thing. And then he just recorded his vocals and it kind of sounds as though he's buried in the mix. But I'm sure it's getting a lot of traction just for the mere fact that it features Steve Perry. So good on the effect and good on Steve Perry.

Speaker 1: 14:23

And in Steve Perry news since we're talking about the great one apparently he has signed with a record company. Oh no, does that mean he's going to put out another album? Well, why else would you sign with the record company, unless you intended on putting out new music? So we'll see how that goes. But I know there's rumblings that he is, he's missed touring and he's kind of getting that itch back to tour and and do a solo tour, tour and do a solo tour. So for all of us big Steve Perry honks out there who have just been waiting and waiting and waiting for something from Steve Perry, maybe, maybe there's a little something coming up in the future.

Speaker 1: 15:20

I wouldn't count on it anytime soon, certainly not this year. If anything happens, I would imagine it wouldn't count on it anytime soon, certainly not this year. If anything happens, I would imagine it wouldn't happen before next year, 2025. But you know, we'll see Miracles happen, right, and yeah, we'll see how that goes. So I guess, since we are or I am anyway, you're just listening, since we're talking music here, we know that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the inductees, were announced, I don't know, a couple, three weeks ago. I think I was in Portland at the time. They did get announced.

Speaker 1: 16:02

So we all know that foreigner got in, which long overdue, and I, I, I don't even remember all of the, the acts that got in. I remember foreigner got in, a share, got in um, there was seven of them, if you remember. I just I don't remember off the top of my head and I haven't paid a ton of attention to it, but it started making me think about and, of course, you know if you love, if you love your music and you, you know you worry about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and your favorite bands. And are they in? Are they not? Are they going to get in? Are they not going to get in? Are they even going to get a sniff of it on a ballot at some point. I don't know, but there's a ton of bands out there that have been snubbed for a long time and, of course, foreigner was one of them. For many, many years, ever since they had become eligible based on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's criteria, they had never even been on a ballot.

Speaker 1: 17:11

And so I started thinking about it like I don't know, 10 minutes before I came in the studio here and I thought, hmm, what are some of the other rock and roll Hall of Fame snubs? And I didn't write any down, so I'm gonna just kind of, as they come to mind, just mention them and, if you're watching, throw some in the comments if you want. Or you know better than that, if you want to see me punish myself and take a drink of that nasty Malort right there, then call in with your rock and roll snubs One, two, however many you think you have, and yeah, we'll go from there. But yeah, I was thinking about it, I think, because I was brushing my teeth before I came back in the studio. I was getting my dinner out of my teeth, sorry, and I started thinking. Actually, I started singing this song Ready for Love, by Bad Company. Yeah, ready for love. Oh baby, I'm ready for love. You know, and I thought Bad Company, yeah, never even had a sniff, never even been on a ballot.

Speaker 1: 18:38

All the great music that they produced, that they recorded and released, the great Paul Rogers, you know, I think he's kind of dubbed the singer's singer you know, as fabulous as he is, as fabulous as that band was and I say was because they don't really do much, they haven't officially broke up or anything like that. But I don't know if we'll ever hear from Paul Rogers rogers again. He's had some health issues over the past few years and uh, so it's really, really up in the air as to whether we'll ever we'll see him again on stage. Nonetheless, bad company, big time. Rock and roll snub huge band, great band should already be in the rock and roll snub huge band, great band should already be in the rock and roll hall of fame and and they're not.

Speaker 1: 19:30

And then you know, in that, uh, you know that same genre, that classic rock or I don't know what you want to call it. You know it gets called so many things, arena rock, so many things, arena rock, corporate rock. I don't even know what that means, just dumb stuff. But hey, it's classic rock, for us it's just good time rock and roll. Styx, I mean, come on. Styx has been around since the early 70s Before and of course they really hit it big with oh, I'm trying to remember now. I'm trying to remember Tommy Shaw's first album with the band and I'm drawing a blank. It wasn't the Grand Illusion, it was the album right before that. But before Tommy Shaw was in Styx, I believe they had released two or three albums similar to to, like the Journey story they were on. They were on a label called Wooden Nickel and they had two or three releases prior to that. Really, you know nothing to speak about. And then Tommy Shaw joined the band and they started to gain more traction and took off. But come on, styx, they've been around forever. Look how many great songs are in their catalog, whether it's Dennis DeYoung or Tommy Shaw or even JY doing the singing and JY only takes a song or two. But it's primarily Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw that have covered all that material over the years. Great stuff.

Speaker 1: 21:22

This band has never even been on a ballot. How puzzling is that. That's just amazing to think about the many years that they've been snubbed. And you know the criteria is to be eligible. It has to be. I think it's 25 years beyond your first release. So they would probably count once Tommy Shaw was in the band because that was like a major release for them. So I think that was like 75, 76. So count 25 years from then, that's what 2000? So they've been eligible for 23, 24, 25 years right in that area and never been on a ballot. 24, 25 years right in that area had never been on a ballot. That's just nuts when you think about it. That's just, I don't know. That's somebody, not People on the nominating committee not recognizing the greatness of that band. Come on, somebody. Leave me a comment, don't make me give you all the snubs here. Who else? Reo Speedwagon, another band Been around since the early 70s, probably been eligible since around 2000. Right in that area and never, ever been on a ballot, never been considered. How ridiculous is that?

Speaker 1: 23:02

You know they had some great albums prior to High Infidelity and they were really. It's like, with each album they were ramping up more and more and more, gaining more steam, more popularity, and then bam, what happens? They release High Infidelity and that was it. It was all over, but the shock. And what a great album. Great album, great songs, a diamond album. And it hit diamond status gosh, 10 years ago at least. So who knows where that is now. And they have great albums after that as well. Now they don't really do any recording anymore. They haven't put out any new music anymore. They haven't put out any new music, boy. I couldn't even tell you. It's been quite a while, been quite a while, but great band out every year on tour filling sheds and it's always a good show with REO Speedwagon. And yet always snubbed, and have been snubbed since. They've become eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Let's see. Come on somebody out there. Let me know how.

Speaker 1: 24:36

About Boston? Yeah, boston, what was it? 1976, I think it was when Boston released their debut album, an Absolute Masterpiece. Every song on that album was played on the radio. Every song song on that album was played on the radio, every song. And the, the debut album was like a greatest hits album unto itself.

Speaker 1: 25:09

And I think it's the. I think it's the, the, the biggest selling debut album of all time by any band. I think it. At one point I had heard something like I've got my iPad. Right, you should look it up, but I'm not going to. But I think it was around 16 million copies at one point 16 million, are you kidding? They followed it up with Don't Look Back, which was a great album. But when you're coming off of that debut and it is multi-times platinum right out of the gate, it's hard to follow up with something that's going to be equally as incredible in the number of sales. But I still think that Don't Look Back has sold like $5 or $6 billion or something like that Just a bizarre number. It might even be more, but when you're looking at it in comparison, one might say that's a bit of a disappointment. But really not so much. But a great band. And yes, brad Delp, the lead singer, has passed away. I many years ago I want to say it was around 07, something like that um, but uh, yeah, great stuff. Even their third stage album had some big songs on it. So so a band like Boston that was very innovative, created a different sound and it's a sound that the band, it's their signature sound.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Yeah, rock and Roll, hall of Fame snub. Never even been on a ballot, never, not even once. Let's see Someone else, somebody else. You're not helping me out here, folks, I'm not getting any comments from you. How about Kansas? Yeah, kansas is probably one that doesn't get a lot of. It doesn't come to you real quick, but we all know Kansas has been around for 50 years. Great songs, great band, again, just like the previous bands I've mentioned Longevity, great material, lots of album sales, and they kind of touch on the, not just the hard rock, but a little bit progressive at times as well. Never, ever been on a ballot. How does that happen? I don't know. How does that happen? It's just bananas to me. So you know, whatever, it's just the way it is and it is what it is. But I'll get off of that right now and I'm going to let you people think about it for a little bit and you can either call in you see the phone number scrolling across the screen so call into the show and uh, or you can leave it in the comments. So how's that?

Speaker 1: 28:28

I talked about earlier getting the dinner out of my teeth. Um, I don't know about you guys, but I'm a big comfort food lover. I'm a big fan of comfort food and you know, give me some, just meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn, yeah, and that's it. I am set. But there's something that Catherine and I do in the crock pot as well. We get some cream of chicken soup, we put it in the crock pot. Then we get a bag of frozen peas and carrots. Put that in there and we'll get chicken breast and throw that in there and just let it go Four hours, five hours, six hours, whatever it is, it doesn't matter, we let it go. And usually about the last couple hours we'll get some potatoes, not frozen. Well, no, I take that back. We have put frozen potatoes in there, frozen like red skin potatoes, you know, ones that are all cut up, and we'll throw a bag of those in there as well. And man, oh man, just the greatest stuff. It is so good, like I said, comfort food. And now, remember, I'm old, just like all of you out there, well, probably most of you, I know we got some young ones out there. Hello to the young ones.

Speaker 1: 30:06

And if you remember, chicken a la king, I remember my mom would buy this for my dad. It came frozen and it was in a plastic pouch and you would boil it, you put it in boiling water and then, when it's ready, you take it out, and I think she would actually put it over sliced bread for my dad. But here, catherine and I, we get some biscuits, we throw some biscuits in the oven and we get those going, and so we take our if you want to call it our version of chicken a la king. I don't know, I just know it's delicious, and we get those biscuits and throw them on a plate and pour that stuff over the biscuits and go and and it is, it is go time. Then it's so delicious and, um, comfort food, that's exactly what it is, and so it's stuff like that. And so it's stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 31:17

Chili I love making chili in the crock pot. Comfort food, I mean, just makes me feel so good and I'll eat chili anytime, anytime. To me it's not just like a winter thing, it's an anytime thing. Stuff like that it's great, great. Sorry, come on, I keep banging my watch on the table here. So I'm trying my best with the new camera and I think I'm doing okay. I have to peek over at the monitor every once in a while, but I think I'm doing okay. You'll let me know, right? You'll let me know if I'm screwing up, if I'm looking stupid, or well, you don't have to tell me I look stupid. I already know. So I'm just waiting for some phone calls. Look, I'm not looking forward to drinking anything, so I might be feeling real good once this show is over, especially if I don't have to take a drink. That'll make me feel even better. I love that.

Speaker 1: 32:26

So I'm coming off of let's see coming off two weeks in Portland, coming off of last week working nights and then this week. This week I worked nights as well. I had today off, good for me. So I only worked Monday through Thursday of this week, but I worked nights as well. I had today off, good for me. So I only worked Monday through Thursday of this week, but I worked nights and I was getting home. I was starting at 9.30 at night and I was getting home at I don't know, anywhere between 10 and 12 noon. So long nights and or mornings, however you want to look at it, because anytime past midnight it's morning. Right, it's no longer night, it's now morning. So some long, long, long nights, long mornings, and I'm trying to just recover from that. I'm trying to recoup.

Speaker 1: 33:21

I go back to work on Sunday night. Yeah, I already know. I don't even have to wait for the text message in church. I already know I'm working Sunday night. I'll be working nights again next week and then, baby, I'm off for a week. I can't wait, I'll be off. I've got a vacation week and I am so looking forward to that. I need it big time. Yeah, I mean shoot At that point. I'll be back to work almost six months and it's time for a week off. Yeah, I think so. What do you think? Heck, some people take vacation all the time. But yeah, so I'm looking forward to that and I'm trying to line up some guests to come on the program that week because it's wide open program that week, because I'm just, it's wide open, so I don't have any. I don't have any scheduling conflicts due to work or anything like that. So, just working on some things. I'm not going to say anything, I don't want to jinx it and if it happens, awesome, you'll know about it, because I'm going to let you know about it. We'll see how it goes.

Speaker 1: 34:45

Anyway, oh, another band that came to mind, a rock and roll snub and never been on a ballot and they'll never even get in. Forget it, forget about it. And that is one of my favorites, one of my all-time favorite bands Uriah Heep and you were like, oh my gosh, dude, why are you talking about this band again? We never even heard of them. We don't even know who they are. Well, check their stuff out. Band has been around. Their first release was 1969, I believe it was. That was their debut album. Great stuff they came out.

Speaker 1: 35:22

There's like four bands really that fit into the same category, though, you're right, he really never gets mentioned unless you're across the pond in the UK. Then they kind of get mentioned along with these other bands at being the the creators, I guess, of one progressive music touching on heavy metal, uh, very hard rock, and those bands would be deep purple, black sabbath, led zeelin and Uriah Heep, and they're every bit as good as those three bands that I mentioned beforehand. But they will never, ever get a sniff of the Hall of Fame, never, ever, ever. Just simply because they don't have that notoriety here in the United States that they do elsewhere around the world. And you know they had one, one hit single here in the United States and it wasn't like it was really a big song either. It was. It was fairly big on rock radio but not on like Billboard Top 40. You weren't going to hear it like on pop radio or anything like that, and so they're just never going to get a shot at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they are certainly deserving in my book because they're that good. Deserving in my book because they're that good and they still write, record and release new material. They still do it. They had an album out last year in 2023. Great album.

Speaker 1: 37:15

So, anyway, that one just kind of came to mind and I see that we still have some viewers out there. So, yes, thanks for watching, appreciate that. And we bounce up and down a little bit as to the number that we have, so some people stick around and some people don't. That's okay, that's the way it is. You know, on Friday Night Live, we generally go like an hour. I try not to go longer than an hour because it is Friday night. Everybody wants to maybe do something on a Friday night, but this is like date night here, right? I think there's no better way to spend a Friday night than right here with me on the Ben Maynard program. It's good stuff, it's good stuff, and if I'm here, then you should be here too, right? Just saying, just saying, and, yeah, still hanging out waiting for your comments. But that's all right.

Speaker 1: 38:20

If we don't get you know, I'll say this. You see me squinting. I'm looking at my let me the microphone this way. Yeah, I'm looking and I'm looking. Okay, I'm just looking at the timer on my monitor. That's the drag with bringing in the new camera and trying to excuse me, trying to make more space in the studio.

Speaker 1: 38:51

You guys haven't seen really the inside of the studio. You see this here. You've seen my bookshelf a little bit, my books and everything, but you really don't see much more than that. But right in front of the table, I mean, you actually do see the table and tonight with the new camera, the angle that I have it set at, you're not really seeing what's on the table, so much Because the camera was set so much lower in the past. You saw everything on the table, so you saw what a mess it all was Notepads out here, keyboard here, malort, shot glasses being boozled.

Speaker 1: 39:42

I've pushed back and I've put the laptop back where it belongs, which is on the desk on the far wall of the studio. So instead of the camera really being literally three feet from me now it's about eight feet from me and that means the laptop is about eight feet from me. Now it's about eight feet from me and that means the laptop is about eight feet from me and you all know that I can't really see anyway without my readers on. So and my readers aren't going to do me any good trying to trying to read what's across the room. It just doesn't work that way. So yeah, so I'll lean in and squint and try to see what the timer says, how long we've been on the air.

Speaker 1: 40:29

I think I expose myself and give you way too much. I do. I think I just do. I give you way too much information and let you behind the scenes too much. But that's just me. I'm a very transparent person, I don't hide anything. And so there you go. I don't care, I don't mind, I tell you the ups and the downs of this show and I just. I tell you my ups and downs and then we just let it go. I'm just look, I'm like anybody else, all right, I put my pants one leg. Put them on one leg at a time. I don't just jump into them like some of you. I know some of you are very acrobatic and I know you can do it. Let me take a sip of water please.

Speaker 1: 41:24

I'm experiencing a little dry throat, all right, oh, I did notice something and I think it just had been sneaking past me, but I happened to notice today I was looking at the YouTube channel and it's not a big deal. I know it's not going to be a big deal to most of you out there, but it's a big deal to me. I actually have a whole 81 subscribers. Yes, how about that? I think some people snuck on as subscribers while I was away in Portland and working nights, and all that because I haven't been able to check anything. So if I wasn't recording the show, then I would get on YouTube and see if any of the other episodes were were were gaining more views and that kind of thing. But I wasn't paying attention to subscribers, so I was like 81. Wow, I think. Last time I checked I had like 60 something, 67 or 68. So, like, all right, I got a few extra subscribers. Great job Me. It would be nice if I could get to 100 in the next 30 days.

Speaker 1: 42:52

So, as I always say, tell a friend. Yeah, and do you know why I say tell a friend? It's because word of mouth is the greatest form of advertisement, because when you tell one person, they're more apt to tell one person, so on and so on. So if you tell two people, then they're gonna tell two people, and so on and so on. Okay, that's all. So just tell your friends, tell your family, tell your neighbors, tell people you don't know.

Speaker 1: 43:29

Where is it? I made these right here, these coasters with the show logo, and I made them. And I didn't make them, of course. I had them made and I barely passed out any. I am going to take a dozen with me tomorrow. I'm going somewhere tomorrow where I'm hoping I can pass them out and get some eyes on this podcast, and yeah, I wish that I could get some out to you somehow.

Speaker 1: 44:05

So, look, people, drop me an email. So, look, people, drop me an email. My email address is. I believe it's in the description, somewhere I don't know. I think the email address is on Buzzsprout. So, look, if you're listening on Buzzsprout, just scroll down the show description and I'm pretty sure the email address is right there. You can either send me a message I know that there's a function on Buzzsprout that allows you to click and send me a direct message, whether it's hey, dude, great job, or you know what, you're really terrible or whatever, but my email address is on there.

Speaker 1: 44:49

Or, if you want to, in the comments, be it while we're on here live, or if you watch this afterwards and you want, you want, uh, you want a coaster, I'll send it to you. I'll shove it in an envelope. Just give me your name and address and all that good stuff, I'll send it to you. Why not? I have to get some more made anyway. So, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to stick with the same design or if I'm going to try something else. I might. I might try something else, I'm not sure.

Speaker 1: 45:17

Just to kind of mix it up a little bit, I think I showed you guys a while back when I had the window stickers made, and it's just this logo right here, without the name, without the show name on there. It's just this logo right here is without, without the name, without the show name on there. It's just this logo all by itself, and it's in black, it's on it's and it's on a clear background. So if you put it on, like your window, your your car window or something like that, it'll um, it'll show up. I think I want to do that, one in white. I want to redo that just like this in white. I think that would stick out better, stand out more. I should say so, yeah, I got some more of those made. But, yeah, if you want a coaster or a couple coasters, you know, just drop me a line. All right, how's that? Drop me a line and you can have some show swag. All right, it's on me. Yeah, cause I'm so big time.

Speaker 1: 46:13

You know, I, I I don't know if I mentioned before I wanted, I want to get t-shirts made. Um, I want to find the right t-shirt. That's the problem. I know that you've seen, uh, in past episodes. I have a couple of t-shirts, one with the white logo, one with the black logo, and they're pretty good t-shirts. They're not bad. So I'm not sure. One is, you know, a cotton t-shirt and the other one is a dry fit, a dry fit t-shirt. So I don't know which way I want to go with those, um, cause I like them both, but I, um, the logo on those shirts is a heat transfer, um, and I think I'd rather have it screen printed, um, so we'll see, we'll see about that. Uh, I guess it's no big hurry because I don't have a demand for t-shirts. Nobody is like blowing up the channel with t-shirt requests or anything like that.

Speaker 1: 47:19

So, yeah, anyhow, anything else we need to cover? Oh, you know what I'm going to do. Check this out, people, let's see. Let's see if we can do this. I want to show you my. I would kind of want to show you what my new camera does here. Okay, let me do this. Oh there, ah see, look at. Ah, yeah, you can kind of see around the studio a little bit. Those are headphone cases. You see, I don't even wear headphones. I think I wore headphones two, three times on this show here. So I know sometimes I sound loud. I do camera checks and all that. Oh, yeah, down there below right, let me go down right there. I can't zoom in anymore because I'm zoomed in all the way. Whoops, oh, darn it what I do there. Oh, I know what I did. Hang on, there we go, there we go Up. I hit the wrong button. Up, up, up, up and over.

Speaker 1: 48:18

Yeah, that tough guy's picture right there, that painting that was from my brother-in-law, vito. He painted that. I asked him to do that and that's a painting of our jersey from. Let me get this back here. There we go. I think that's a little better. Wow, the lighting kind of changed, I think I do. I think I look a little darker now. Moving the camera around changed the lighting, I think. I'm not sure. But that painting right here, that's of our Tough Guys jersey, of the baseball team from how it started in 1987. And it was all guys that I grew up playing with.

Speaker 1: 49:04

And, yeah, the number three is our friend, mike Dominguez, who sadly passed away back in 2019. And childhood friend, you know, known him since gosh, since high school, and so I asked my brother-in-law, vito, to paint that for me. He designed the logo anyway, way back then, way back then, he designed the logo and so I asked him to paint that for me and to put Mike's number on there. Number three, and I displayed that at his memorial service and I displayed that at his memorial service. So it means a lot to me because it always reminds me of Mike, who was a great guy, he was a great friend, and so, yeah, so I thought I used to hang it in.

Speaker 1: 50:03

I used to hang it next door in my workout room, but I don't know, it's a little more fitting right here in the studio. So that's where it is now and, yeah, you don't normally see it, but now you did and there it is and I'm sorry if you're listening to the audio on this and you can't see it. I know that really doesn't make for great radio, people, and I don't know why I'm looking over here. I'm looking over here at nothing, but I know it doesn't make for great radio. But at least if I can describe it to you and let you know what I'm doing, then I'll try to help you out a little bit. Yeah, so that's what we have there and I'm telling you what people it looks like.

Speaker 1: 50:48

I'm getting out of here without a buzz, which I love. I think we're going to wrap it. I do thank everybody for sticking around, even though you didn't participate. That's okay, that's all right. I still love you.

Speaker 1: 51:06

Look, if something doesn't work, then the best thing to do is keep right on doing it. Really, you know, yeah, if it doesn't work, just keep doing it, because sooner or later it's going to catch on. And you have no idea how many people have stuck with that, have lived by that philosophy that if it doesn't work, just keep right on doing it. People will catch on to what you're doing, people will begin to take it in and they'll gravitate towards it. So that's what I'm going to do here. All right, that's what we do. That's why we do dumb stuff like the Malort challenge, like Stump the Chump, even though I believe we've only had two calls in the history of our Friday Night Lives for Stump the Chump. Yeah, but that's okay, you keep doing it, you just keep on with it. So with that, let's just wrap it. Okay, let's get you out of here. How's that? All right?

Speaker 1: 52:21

As always, this program is available on multiple podcast platforms, like Apple Podcasts, amazon Music and Spotify, or just simply search the Ben Maynard program and choose your option. Of course you're going to go to Buzzsprout, okay, and if you just can't resist this pretty face and you have to watch, then you're watching on YouTube. And if you are watching here on YouTube, then please subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell, give me a thumbs up and leave a comment, because you know I'm always going to read your comments. You know I'm always going to reply to your comments, because I don't get very many, so it's really easy to do. And, last but not least, follow me on Instagram. All one word Ben Maynard Program. All right, with that, we are out. Okay, this is the Ben Maynard Program. Tell a friend.